Ashley Graham is speaking out about the growing popularity of weight loss injections and what it means for the body positivity movement she has long supported.
The supermodel recently opened up in an interview with Marie Claire, sharing her honest reaction to how the rise of these drugs has shifted the conversation around body image.
“It’s really disheartening,” Ashley told the magazine in an interview published on April 30. “There was a pendulum that swung that was so body acceptance, positivity [and] everybody be who they want to be.”
“And now, it’s going back this whole opposite way that feels like a smack in the face to the women who have felt like they’ve had a voice," she continued.
She pointed out that, like most trends, the surge in popularity of medications such as Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy may eventually fade, but emphasized that women’s bodies are not something that should be treated as temporary trends.
“It goes with the times—and GLP-1s are a time,” Ashley explained. “I know that there are and there’s gonna still be women who are considered plus-size forever. This drug isn’t going to wipe out a whole statistic of women.”
Despite the current wave of interest in weight loss treatments, the 38-year-old made it clear she believes the body positivity movement isn’t going anywhere.
“There’s so many [plus size influencers and creators],” she explained. “They’re all over the place with their sizes and their proportions and how they look and how they’re relatable.”
“And to me, that’s the coolest part about all of this,” she added. “Seeing that these girls, who were raised on social media at such a young age are now coming in and they have a platform to say to the younger generation, ‘Be yourself, be who you want to be. If you have cellulite, who cares?’”
Graham also reflected on her own personal journey with body image following pregnancy. She shares son Isaac, 6, and 4-year-old twins Malachi and Roman with her husband, Justin Ervin.
“I’m living in a different body and it’s been hard to get to know her,” Ashley noted. “I can’t say that I can look in the mirror and be like, ‘I love you.’ It’s not that for me. It’s that, ‘Wow, I made some children.’”
“I was as fit as I could be in 2019 when I got pregnant,” she added. “I’m still trying to get to that, but I’ve had to get over it in my head that I’ll look like I did in my late 20s, early 30s. She’s gone. Let’s focus on the new girl. That has been like the last four years of my conversation in my head.”
